TNT vs Food: Where to go for the biggest, hottest and most extreme meals in London

Could you eat an 18,000-calorie burger or 12 beast-sized hot wings in 15 minutes? We give it our best shot

Taste of London kicks off on June 20, an al fresco festival of food serving up samples from the city’s very hottest restaurants. This gourmet wonderland is doubtless worth chewing over for the committed foodie, but if you really want to take a bite out of the Big Smoke, we’ve found a whole other take on London’s food scene for you to get your gnashers round.

Seems Travel Channel’s Man V Food has a lot to answer for, as these days the capital is packed with monstrous food challenges to test the machismo, determination and gag reflex of its hardiest citizens. Of course we felt it only fair that TNT test run a few of these for you. What follows is not for the faint-hearted.

Laura Chubb: Hot wings

Brand-new American BBQ-style hangout Lazy Bones in Farringdon has just launched a hot wings challenge, daring diners to eat 12 of its house special spicy chicken wings and down a chilli mojito in just 15 minutes. Manage it and you don’t have to pay for the meal. Sounds simple enough, but these wings are sourced from a farm just outside of London that must be breeding mutants – the wings are absolutely enormous. Still, it’s possible – I’m informed one punter smashed the challenge in six minutes.

Beginning with a ‘slow and steady wins the race’ approach, I’m pleasantly surprised to find that the sauce – made on site using long red Dutch chillies, chipotle chillies and Thai Sriracha eagle brand chilli sauce – isn’t as searing as I’d expected. Buoyed, I start tearing into them faster, the fiery red coating smearing up the sides of my face. Seven minutes in and the slow-build effect of the heat makes itself known as my nose starts running.

Twelve minutes in and the sheer volume of poultry I’ve ingested starts to make me feel a bit dizzy. When time’s up I’ve still three and a half to go and I haven’t even touched the mojito. So it’s a fail, but a respectable one. (As respectable as you can look with chilli sauce all over your mug, anyways.)

Michael Gadd: The Beast

Croydon eatery Burgers at Black’s serves The Beast, the biggest burger in Europe. It hasn’t been beaten – and it’s no wonder. Try to digest these numbers: 16 pounds total weight, seven of them taken up by two Prime Black Angus beef patties, plus half a pound of melted cheese, streaky bacon covering both layers, a whole iceberg lettuce, seven tomatoes and three layers of bun. In all, it’s 18,000 calories, the recommended daily intake for an average man ... for a week.

Nevertheless, I’m going great guns at the 10-minute mark, but after 15 minutes my brain catches up and says: ”Oi, dickhead, stop eating.” I barely get through a third of it, but you can also take it on as a team.

Four blokes once smashed it in 14 minutes, meaning they didn’t have to pay the hefty £90 pricetag for failure.Want to get amongst it? Turn over for more of London’s biggest and hottest meals. Good luck!